Packaging



Allg. El, 'lm Q. ra. GARDNER PACKAGING Original Filed July 27, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet l Am@ EL l 45., c. E. GARDNER PACKAGING original Filed July 27, 1939 2 sheets-sheet 2 Patented Aug. 2l, 1945 mirri-:DV STAT `PACKAGING n charles E. Gardner, Cuyahoga Fails, ohio, as-

signor to Wingfoot Corporation, Wilmington Del., a corporation o! Delaware Original application July 27, 1939, Serial No. 286,800. Divided and this application-April 8,

1942, Serial No. 438.073

l Fig. 6 illustrates the completed package ready 6 Claims.

This invention relates to packaging. It comprises the methodand apparatus for carrying out the same. i'

According to this invention a bag is blocked on a mandrel, and the bag is fitted into a box or canton and then lled. The bag may be nlled with process cheese or other material which is run into the bag. The bag is of the flat envelop type and may beformed of any suitable material but is preferably a material winch is closed by heat and press e. It may be made of paper or Cellophane or he like coated on the interior for closing;

Figs. 7a and '7b show more or less diagrammatically apparatus for partially sealing the envelop; l

Fig. 8 shows apparatus which may be employecl for removing the air before completing with a heat-scalable material. such as rubber hydrochloride or a composition of rubber and wax, such as the material marketed as Paralm by the Marathon Paper Company. The preferred material is a iilm of rubber hydrochloride. such as the Plioiilm marketed by The Goodyear Tire &Rubber Com ny. Y

In forming e package the hot process cheese or other mate` al to be packaged is run into the bag. The opposite sides ofthe mouth of the bag are brought togetherand partially sealed. After removal of entrapped' air from the b ag, the seal lis Icompleted. Although the invention will be described more particularly in connection with the packaging of process cheese, it is also applicable to the packaging of lard, margarine. peathe sealing;

Fig. 9 shows apparatus for completing the seal ing:

Figs. 10 and 11- are l views of apparatus for blocking the envelop;

Fig. 1 2 is 'an enlarged detail of the envelop but partially sealed 'to permit the escape of air; and Y Figs. 13-16 show apparatus used in sealing.

Fig. 1 shows the envelop a which may be formed from non-tacky unplasticized unstabilized rubber hydrochloride lm having a chlorine content or about 30%. This nlm is highly flexible and may be creased without decreasing its waterproofness. It may be formed according to Calvert #2,139,647.

The'envelop is formed by doubling a iiat sheet of the illm. The crease formed by doubling is shown at b. After doubling, the side edges areA united as at c. This union is advantageously effected byheat with pressure. A temperature ot around 300 F. is satisfactory. Several narrowv seals, for example three such parallel seals, give an airtight seam. Figs. 4a and 12 show three 4such seams.

The bag may be made m any other suitame 4 vform. It may be formed of two sheets sealed t0- terial being packaged.

The invention is further described `in connection with the accompanying drawings in'which:

Fig. 1 represents the ilat envelop from which the package is :formed:`

Figs. 2a and 2b are an elevation and-bott m view of the blocked envelop: l

Fig. 3 shows the envelop in a box; l

Figs.- 4a and 4b are anelevation and top view of the package withthe top of the envelop par.-Y tially sealed;

Figs. 5a and 5b show an elevation and top view o the package after thesealing has been competed:y

gether. It may have a square bottom. Plicated this blocking' apparatus the bottom of the envelop is widened out and ears indicated by d (Fig.

`2b) are formed. Y

The blocking 'the envelop, the apparatus is rst brought into the position shown in Fig. 10

by lowering thebar I 0. This bar is connected.

through the toggie joint n with the .blocks lz.

By lowering the bar I0 the blocks are tilted on the hinges i3. rIhe envelop is spread and shaped over these blocks and then by raising the bar I0 the blocks are brought to the upright position which blocks out the envelop. Wrinkles and folds in the, envelop arel smoothed out by hand. and the envelop is pushed down as far as possible over the blocks I2. As the earsformed at lthe bottom. or the envelop are flattened out horizontally the bottom will have the appearance shown in 2b. As a matter of fact. the usual way for handling the envelop as soon as it has been blocked is to place the box e ove'r the top of the envelop while it is vstill on the blocks i2. This folds the ears d up inw the box as shown in Fig. 3, and the box will be smoothly lined withthe envelop.

The passageways I4 indicated by dotted lines in Figs. 10 and 11 allow for the passage of air into the blocked envelop as it is removed from the blocks Il and thus prevent the formation of a vacuum which would prevent the lining from lying flat inside the box e.

The cheese or other material is then placed in the blocked envelop. Process cheese is preferably packaged while hot and run into the envelop in a hot plastic condition.

The envelop is then sealed. This is done by bringing the two topflaps of the envelop together. This is advantageously done by fingers which are inserted in the top of the package and then spread wide apart, bringing the top edges of the bag together. The walls of the flange a thus formed Y are united by heat and pressure. Ears are formed exactly the opposite of the ears shown in Figs. 2a and 2b. These ears are shown at f in Fig. 4b.

lEquipment for spreading the mouth of the bag and effecting the seal is shown in Figs. 13-16 and will be explained in detail in connection with the discussion of those gures.

The seal may be formed by pressing the flange between a heated platen and a base plate as shown in Figs. 7a and 7b. It is noted that the platen h is not as long as the flange y. It is not the intention to form a full-length seal at this stage 'of the process. A partial seal only is formed. Thereafter any air lcontained in the package is removed, and the seal is then completed.

The air is preferably removed by a plunger of the type indicated at i in Fig. 8. It is noted that the plunger is convex so that it first makes contact near the center of the top of the package and as it is further lowered the line of contact gradually moves to each edge. The head of the plunger is advantageously made of some cushion material. such as sponge rubber. This forces the air out through the unsealed portions of the ears of the package as shown in Fig. 12.

Afterthe plunger has removed the air from the package the ears .f are sealed tight. This may be done by folding the flange to the body of the package and then applying pressure with heat in lines perpendicular to the main seam. Such a cross seal may be effected by the heating platens :i (Fig. 9) which press against the supports lc. They form a cross seal, such as indicated by the line I shown in Fig. b. 'I'his seal unites the flange 9 withv the ears f as well as closing the ears so that air can neither enter nor leave the package. Such a package is air-tight and prevents the entrance of air. It is also airfree. There is no opportunity for mold to form von processed cheese which is packaged in this way.

Instead of partially sealing and then further sealing at each ear the flange y may be sealed similar heatealable material, such as a paper bag coated o the interior with rubber hydrochloride, the method is not limited to the closing of bags by heat. Adhesives maybeused. Where a non-heat-sealable packaging material. such as paper coated on the interior only with rubber hydrochloride is employed it is not possible to heat-seal the flange to the ears as shown in Fig.

A' 5b when the ange is laid over.

Laying the flange over and applying heat as shown in Fig. 5b will seal off the ends of the flange and the ears without uniting the flange to the ears.

Details of mechanism for accomplishing the first stage of the sealing operation are shown in Figs. 13-16. Fig. 13 shows the bag in the box e. The spreading fingers 50 and 5i are plvoted on the shafts 52 and 53 and are so arranged as to swing down into the open mouth of the bag shown in Fig. 3 and extend the mouth to form the flange g as shown in Figs. 4a and 4b.

Fig. 16 is a top view in perspective f the mechanism shown in Figs. 13, .14 and 15. After the top edges of the bag have been brought tothree separate narrow seals.

gether by spreading the top with the fingers 50 and 5I, these fingers are withdrawn to the position shown in Fig. 16, and the sweeping arms 5! and 55 are brought down and the sweeps 56 and 51 pinch the flange g at its base. It is important that the seal be formed as close to the top of the cheese in the package as possible to prevent the entrapment of air which will cause the cheese to mold. The sweeps 56 and 51 force most of the air out of the top of the package through the flange g and pinch the flange at its base.

The sealing unit is indicated by the block 68. This is preferably heated by electricity. It may have a fiat sealing face or is preferably ridged, and three ridges may be employed to produce Such seals are shown by the shading of the. flange in Figs. 4a and 12. A tight seal isinsured by using separate lines of sealing in this manner. The heatsealing block 58 is now swung down on the flange and bears against the beveled face of the sweep 56. This is shown in Fig. 15. The sweep 51 is then raised.

The seal formed by the sealing block 58 vdoes not extend the full width' of the flange. By sealing only a part of the flange and leaving the ends open as shown clearly in Fig. 4a and in detail in Fig. 12 it is possible in the next stage of the sealing process to remove entrapped air from the package and then complete the sealing. The removal of trapped air is accomplished by lowering of the plunger i shown in Fig. 8. The ends are then sealed' by suitable apparatus. such as shown in Fig. 9.

Thevarious operations illustrated are advantageously carried out at two separate stages along a conveyor which conveys the package from the filling mechanism through the nal sealing step. At the first stage the equipment shown in Fig. 16 is located, and the package is partially sealed. The package is then-passed on to the next stage where the plunger i is lowered to remove the air. and the seal is completed. Any suitable conmethod may be carried out when the material being packaged is inserted through a pipe located at the center of the package. With a different type of filling device, it may be desirable to seal the package at both ends in the initial stage, and then after removing entrapped air, sealing the middle of the package.

This application is a division of my application Serial No. 286,800 filed July 27, 1939.

What I claim is:

l. The `method of fluid-tight packaging which comprises providing a collapsed envelop fluidtight on at least the inner surface thereof and having only two layers of flexible sheet material in face to face position including the seams, erecting said envelop on. a mandrel, combining said erected envelop with a carton, filling said envelop with contents, bringing the mouth portions of said filled envelop into flattened face to face position, and then sealing said flattened mouth portions thereby to obtain a package completely free from reentrant folds and layers of increased thickness in the sealed regions.

2. The method of fluid-tight packaging which comprises providing a flat envelop formed from fluid-tight flexible material with sealed regions in the longitudinal marginal portions thereof and having only two layers of said material in face to face position including said sealed regions, erecting said envelop on a mandrel, converting said sealed regions of the envelop into fiattened lateral fins, inserting said erected envelop into a carton, filling said envelop with con tents, bringing the mouth portions of said filled envelop into flattened face to face position, and then applying a flat top seal to said mouth portions thereby to obtain a package completely free from reentrant folds and intervening layers and from similar danger points of leakage.

3. The method of fluid-tight packaging which comprises providing a fiat bag with .a continuous fluid-tight and fusible inner surface'and parallel sealed regions in two longitudinal marginal portions thereof and having only two layers of flexible material in face to face position including said sealed regions, erecting said bag on a mandrel, flattening said longitudinal sealed regions into fins, introducing said bag into a carton, filling said bag with contents, bringing said mouth portions into 'flattened face to face relation, applying a flat transverse, seal to said folded and flattened mouth portions, and then infolding the resulting tabs and closing the carton thereabout thereby to obtain a substantially hermetically sealed package having uniform thickness and number of layers incorporated into its seams.

4. I'he method of fluid-tight packaging which comprises providing a flat bag integrally formed of a sheet presenting a continuous fluid-tight and fusible inner surface and havlng'an L-shaped heat sealed region extending along two adjacent marginal strips thereof including only two layers of material in face to face position, erecting said bag on a mandrel, flattening said sealed region into longitudinal and transverse fins, slipping said erected bag into a carton, filling said bag with contents, folding the mouth portions of said bag into face to face position, applying heat and pressure along a transverse marginal strip of said folded and flattened mouth portions to hermetically seal said bag vwith flat two-layer seams, and vthen folding the resulting tabs of the bag into the carton and closing the carton thereabout.

5. 'Ihe method of fluid-tight packaging which comprises providing a flat bag integrally formed of a sheet presenting a continuous fluid-tight and fusible inner surface and having at least one longitudinal seam with two layers of the bag material in face to face position, squaring-up said bag on a mandrel, flattening said longitudinal seam into a n, introducing said squared-up bag into a carton and withdrawing said mandrel therefrom, filling said bag with contents, horizontally folding the mouth portions of said bag, folding up the top marginal strip of said mouth portions into face to face heat-sealing position, applying heat and pressure to said marginal strip to hermetically seal said bag with a two-layer transverse seam whereby the seam regions of the bag are constituted of only two layers of material in face to face position, and then folding the resulting tabs of the bag into the carton and closing the carton thereabout. l

6. 'I'he method of packaging which comprises providing a flat bag fluid tight and fusible on at least the inner surface thereof andl having at least one longitudinal seam including only two l layers of the bag material in face-to-face position, erecting saidbag cna-mandrel and flattening said seam into a longitudinal fin, inserting said bag into a carton, filling said bag with contents, folding the marginal portions of the mouth of said bag into flattened face-to-face position flattened marginal portions to form a transverse top seam forming a continuation of said longitudinal seam and then closing said carton thereabout.

v(fl-IARLES E. GARDNER. 

